Traffic

I was chased by a black landcruiser this morning as I drove across for my physio.  Toyota landcruisers are the vehicle of choice here; usually white, and usually V8 super powerful monsters. 

Sorry, petrol is very cheap (about the same as bottled drinking water).  It costs us about $12 Australian (roughly as exchange rates are all over the place currently) to fill the tank from half- full.  Cheap petrol means huge beasts of vehicles are cheap to run and they are often used as toys.  Sometime I will figure out how to take a picture of the rubber calligraphy that is left on the roads after the boys have been out playing, without risking my life.

We have seen some amazing, frightening stunts on the roads, and in this case I am not talking about bad, dangerous driving which can be heart-stopping enough.  It is not uncommon to see a landcruiser circling a roundabout on two wheels.  One evening we saw a young chap pull out of a side road at about 100 km/hr and spin down the busy road, also up on two wheels.  At the time we thought he had simply lost control driving too fast, but with experience I realise it was a deliberate show of bravura and, er, skill.

When driving there are bullies who think they own the road - not that unusual anywhere, to be fair - but here if you are ahead of them, they will race up behind you, flash their lights, drive on your bumper and honk until you clear out of the way.  It can be very intimidating.  Somtimes this happens even if there is a slower vehicle in front and say a bus lumbering on beside you.  No where to go but still the onslaught of aggression.

This is what happened to me this morning.  The black landcruiser had all its windows blacked out with heavy tinting - even the front windscreen.  I could see nothing from my rearvision mirror but black glass.  It could have been controlled remotely, or driven by a robot, an alien, or a child.  Very menacing.


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